TODAY HISTORY LESSON: FEBRUARY 16
0600 Pope Gregory the Great decrees saying “God bless You” is the correct response to a sneeze
1659 1st known cheque written (£400), now on display at Westminster Abbey
1741 Benjamin Franklin published America’s second magazine, “The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle”.
1760 Cherokee Indians held hostage at Fort St. George are killed in revenge for Indian attacks on frontier settlements.
1804 U.S. frigate Philadelphia, captured and held by Barbary pirates at Tripoli during the Tripolitan War, was set fire to and destroyed by a small group of men led by Stephen Decatur.
1838 Kentucky passes law permitting women to attend school under conditions
1840 American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica
1857 The National Deaf Mute College was incorporated in Washington, DC. It was the first school in the world for advanced education of the deaf. The school was later renamed Gallaudet College.
1862 Fort Donelson, Tennessee, falls to Grant’s Federal forces, but not before Nathan Bedford Forrest escapes.
1923 Bessie Smith makes her first recording “Down Hearted Blues.”
1923 Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen. The next day he entered the chamber with several invited guests. He had originally found the tomb on November 4, 1922.
1934 Thousands of Socialists battle Communists at a rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
1937 Dupont patents a new thread, nylon, which will replace silk in a number of products and reduce costs.
1943 Sign on Munich facade “Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!” done by “White Rose” student group, caught on 2/18, beheaded on 2/22
1948 Miranda, famous moon of Uranus, photographed for 1st time
1952 The FBI arrests 10 members of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina.
1959 Fidel Castro becomes the 16th Prime Minister of Cuba after overthrowing Fulgencio Batista
1965 Four persons are held in a plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell and the Washington Monument.
1966 The World Council of Churches being held in Geneva, urges immediate peace in Vietnam.
1968 The country’s first 911 phone system went into service in Haleyville, Ala.
1978 China and Japan sign a $20 billion trade pact, which is the most important move since the 1972 resumption of diplomatic ties.
1985 Hezbollah is founded. The Lebanese political party and militant group is classified as a terrorist organization by several western countries.
1987 John Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem. He was accused of being “Ivan the Terrible”, a guard at the Treblinka concentration camp. He was convicted, but the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the ruling.
1988 1st documented combat action by US military advisors in El Salvador
1992 Former silver Goodyear blimps are now painted yellow & blue
1999 A bomb exploded at the government headquarters in Uzbekistan. Gunfire followed the incident. The event apparently was an attempt on the life of President Islam Karimov.
1999 Turkish commandos captured Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya, sparking seizures of embassies in Europe by Kurds.
1999 Testimony began in the Jasper, TX, trial of John William King. He was charged with murder in the gruesome dragging death of James Byrd Jr. King was later convicted and sentenced to death.
2005 The Kyoto Protocol goes into effect. The global warming pact was ratified by 191 countries to date – excluding the United States
2005 The NHL announced the cancellation of the 2004-2005 season due to a labor dispute. It was the first time a major sports league in North America lost an entire season to a labor dispute.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
